Jalen Rose raised eyebrows during a post-game television interview Tuesday night when he said the Raptors should retire Vince Carter's No. 15.

In the wake of the Raptors' 100-82 win against Carter's New Jersey Nets in East Rutherford, N.J., Rose yesterday was asked why his team should honour a guy who admitted he did not give his all at times in Toronto.

"(Whether a number is retired should be measured) by his impact on a franchise and (Carter's) impact on this franchise was tremendous," Rose said. "It's probably the biggest impact one single player is going to have and it's definitely the single (biggest) impact a player has had. That is why (he) should get his number retired.

"It's not how many championships you win and it's not how far you go in the playoffs. There are perennial all-stars in this league that have never played out of the first round. You can't just always judge a guy by how much a team has won because a lot goes into a team winning and it starts at the top."

The Raptors have reached the second round just once in franchise history, with Carter leading the way in 2001.

During the TV interview, Rose also said Carter probably is the "most beloved" athlete in Toronto history.

GM IN TRAINING

Rose is preparing for a post-playing career in basketball management by playing video games.

"I play NBA Live all the time," he said. "I'm a great GM on that. I make trades all the time and my teams always do well. If I had my own (NBA) team, I'd probably have some things I could do."

BRIEFLY

Raptors coach Sam Mitchell yesterday was playing down the NBA trade deadline. "It's just part of the game," he said of the deadline today at 3 p.m. "It's no big deal. I got traded before. When you sign a contract in professional sports, it's part of it. Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) got traded, Shaq (O'Neal)got traded, Michael Jordan played for a team other than the Chicago Bulls. You just don't worry about it." ... The Raptors play five of their next seven games on the road.